How To Remove the Skirt from a Sofa

July 27, 2015

Remember back in early June when I guest hosted Thrift Score Thursday and I shared my red sofa? Well, one of the reasons I was drawn to t...

Remember back in early June when I guest hosted Thrift Score Thursday and I shared my red sofa? Well, one of the reasons I was drawn to this couch, besides the fact that it was free, was because I could see the many different possibilities of styles that I can mix and match with this sofa. One of the main things I knew I wanted to do this sofa was to take the skirt off of the sofa to modernize it a little bit more. The red cranberry color is very beautiful but I felt that the skirt was aging the sofa in a way that it clashed with the look I wanted to achieve. Back when I had my Chinoiserie couch, I removed the skirt and it made a world of a difference, so I knew...I would love the results.

The only tool you need to accomplish this task is an upholstery remover. If you do not have this tool you can try a flat head screwdriver, but I do not how much success you will have with that. The cool thing about this tool is that it removes tacks and staples in a couple of seconds. My red couch measures approximately 7' and it took me about 20 minutes to remove most to all the tacks.

When it comes to steps---basically, you just have to pry the nail off like how you would with a hammer. That is it, it is pretty basic. I would not recommend using the backside of a hammer to remove tacks or staple, because it will not work and it may damage your upholstery. I tried taking pictures of me prying the tacks off, but guys....I am a righty BIGGGGGG TIME and trying to take a picture and prying a tack off with tool was a no go! Please forgive me. Ha!

--Upholstery tack remover--

The ease of the upholstery tool is absolutely amazing. The tacks in this couch were in there deep and I was able to remove them with very minimal damage to the actual sofa. What you see below is what the aftermath of the removal of the tacks.

You can see a couple of the tacks that I could NOT get off for the life of me...I was afraid of damaging the sofa. When I started this project I did not think that the residue of the tacks would be visible. When I did this to my "Chino" couch, the staple removing damage was not noticeable, because there was a print on the couch. Since this couch is solid, I plan to hide the tack-damage...BUT you will have to wait till August to see what I come up with!

I held on to the skirt and I plan to keep a small amount of scratch fabric just in case I need material for extra buttons....one word, KIDS!

Now the sofa screams mad-menish, don't ya think? Very modern.....BUT stay tune to see how I makeover the couch so the tack holes are not visible.

I've never known about that tool--very cool! We have an Ikea sofa (KIDS! like you said ;) ) that I revamped almost as soon as we bought it. I switched out the legs (they look a lot like the ones on your couch already), added buttons to the back cushions and I cut off the top 1/3 of each seat cushion to make the arm rests at a more comfortable level. So awesome that you got that sweet sofa for free! Even more amazing is how much the whole look of it changed by just removing that skirt! Well done :) It look super stylish and high end.

Wow - removing the skirt made a huge difference! psst - you have a typo in your title: Form should be From. This is a typo that I make all of the time! I do not know why but my fingers always types the o then the r when I want from. But again - great job with the couch. I can't wait to see what else you do with it!

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